Imperial TL14 and TL15 Carriers

[robject]

Carriers

From my little exposure to carriers, it seems that they come in two flavors... hinting that perhaps they come in lots and lots of flavors, and I just haven't seen them all so far.

• Jump 4 (standoff) or Jump 3 (strike), Maneuver 2 (standoff) or Maneuver 6 (strike)
• No primary (standoff), or a weak primary (strike)
• Plenty of secondaries and good defense.
• As many heavy fighters as they can carry.

Of course, this means that fighters have a role. I don't want to discuss what that actual role IS at this time.

 

[The Oz]

Maybe carriers could be thought of as coming in two types, each time coming a variety of sizes.

"Fighting" carriers are intended to join battle alongside their fighters, and so need the weapons and defenses to do so: spinal mount, secondaries, armor, screens, computer, Agility. To get all that, they give up some of the fighters they could carry compared to the other type.

"Standoff" carriers (I like that term) send the fighters out to do the fighting by themselves. They only need enough Maneuver to keep up with the fleet strategically, and carry only self-defense weaponry (plus a heavy missile battery, usually). Their main weapon is as many fighters as they can carry.

Battleships and "fighting" carriers start to blend together at higher tonnages. Some quick work with HGS (thanks, Andrew) and I have designed a TL-15, 400kton ship with armor-13, everything else maxed (weapons, defenses), and a fighter wing of 100 50-ton fighters.

Of course, this assumes that fighters are worth something at higher TLs. According to HG, once you get to TL-14 or better, fighters aren't much use in battle against equal TL warships. The computer modifier and the small weapon battery size of fighters is just too big a disadvantage for fighters to overcome.

Operationally, inside a star system, fighters are probably still useful as scouts, anti-scouts, escorts, and (very) light raiders.

 

[robject]

Yes, I think your two primary roles for carriers makes sense.

We won't go into the role of fighters here. Let's just acknowledge that they have a role.

Rather than treat carriers as merging with larger ships, I prefer to think of larger ships as taking on secondary roles (carrier and assault in particular) when volume permits. E.G. your dreadnought for example, or the Tigress as another.

 

[martletsquire]

For a WWII perspective, think of the different roles and designs between US and Commonwealth carriers. US Carriers, epitomized in the Essex class, emphasized speed, carrying power and range to deliver a large strike package for offensive purposes to a beyond-the-horizon fight, relying on support ships to serve as a protection. The British carriers emphasized survival and defense, more designed for taking the fight to a littoral fight, rather than the blue-water role of the USNs carriers.

Further defining the role of carriers, a well rounded navy, expanding upon the WWII USN model with a little Brit tossed in, would have:

Heavy Fleet carriers for stand-off heavy strike packages
Armored Strike Carriers (with guns) for in-the-face fighting
Medium multi-role carriers for front-line, 2nd line, raiding and so forth
Escort carriers for convoy escort and fighter transport/training
and maybe even more...

 

[Theophilus]

For a WWII perspective, think of the different roles and designs between US and Commonwealth carriers. US Carriers, epitomized in the Essex class, emphasized speed, carrying power and range to deliver a large strike package for offensive purposes to a beyond-the-horizon fight, relying on support ships to serve as a protection. The British carriers emphasized survival and defense, more designed for taking the fight to a littoral fight, rather than the blue-water role of the USNs carriers.
.

Of course, the carriers were designed for different sea's. British carriers spent time in the Med, where enemy aircraft were all around them, thus survivability was paramount. American carriers covered thousands of miles of blue water in the pacific, thus striking range was more important.

 

[Carlobrand]

Kind of hard to discuss carriers without discussing the role that their principal combat arm plays. Unfortunately, to discuss that role, we'd need to expand out of High Guard, which is really a very narrow - though fun and important - snippet of the role and operations of combat ships. We'd need to expand to such things as ground combat, fleet formations and the role of the picket, long-range reconnaissance, and other roles in which the fighter might excel but which receive little attention within the game.